Chapter 10: Daylight
“It's
the heart afraid of breaking that never learns to dance.”-Bette Midler
Anton wasn’t born
yesterday and he noticed Danielle flirting with Jamarcus right away. He wasn’t about ready to have another woman
cheat on him. His short lived
relationship with Danielle did have its perks though, he thought to himself. Danielle had boosted Anton’s ego so much recently
simply by tagging him in a picture on facebook.
Danielle was merely announcing she was “in a relationship” with Anton
Battaglia and Anton secretly hoped that his ex-wife would see the pictures so
he could rub it in her face. “I can have a midlife crisis just as easily as
Liv can,” he thought to himself. He
tried to imagine what Liv’s face looked like when she logged onto facebook that
day to catch up on all the gossip back home only to find a picture of the town
hottie on her ex-husband’s wall. As
Anton waited for flirty little Danielle, he looked over at Samantha Dodson
gathering her sport sack and water bottle.
He thought she looked a little frumpier and sadder than usual. He tried to get her attention to say hello,
but Samantha’s eyes were fixed on the floor as she popped in her ear buds and
pressed play on her iPod. He noticed
that Samantha was actually quite attractive when she smiled at herself in the
mirror redoing her ponytail. Of course
she was happy, she had someone at home waiting for her. Anton had no one.
Anton had been
devastated when Liv had started posting pictures of her and Bo in their new
home. She looked happier than he had
ever seen her in any of their own pictures as a married couple. Well, good for her, he thought. As he looked over at Danielle practically
throwing herself at Jamarcus, he knew he would be humiliated if…no…when Danielle dumped him. By the way Danielle was looking at the young
new fitness club owner, Anton figured he would soon be dumped. He wasn’t about ready to have that
happen. How had he got suckered in to a
relationship with someone so young, naïve, and shallow in the first place? He was looking for acceptance which he found
but he felt emptier inside than when before he met her. His wallet was definitely more empty
too. Had he really just paid for half of
her tuition for next semester on his credit card last week? Because of the financial ties, he knew
breaking up would be a sticky situation.
“Rip it off like a bandaid,” he told himself. Tonight…yes, tonight at dinner.
The music on the
overhead speakers at the fitness club was playing Dayligh by Maroon 5.
“Here
I am waiting
I'll have to leave soon
Why am I holding on?
We knew this day would come
We knew it all along
How did it come so fast?”
I'll have to leave soon
Why am I holding on?
We knew this day would come
We knew it all along
How did it come so fast?”
Okay, so maybe Anton and Danielle’s relationship
hadn’t lasted long enough for that song to mean much, but Anton was getting
tired of waiting and holding on to something he knew was just make believe. The next song that came on was more
appropriate and more familiar to Anton anyway.
He loved hearing the songs that reminded him of High School. Oh yes, Tainted Love. “Once I ran to you, now I’ll run from you…this
tainted love you’ve given…”
Jamarcus paid no more
attention to Danielle than he did the other members of his club. Jamarcus had no desire of being in a
relationship that was as shallow as Danielle.
He couldn’t deny her outer beauty but he had learned through the last
few years of deep religious conversion that what mattered was what was inside a
person’s soul. As Danielle rambled on
and on about her college life, Jamarcus noticed a middle aged man who seemed to
be waiting impatiently for her. A tall
Italian man? Hmm, he wondered if this
was the guy whose wife had left him for the personal trainer/social media guru
guy? He was finding out pretty quick
that in small towns somehow everyone is related to someone. You had to really watch what you said about
people. Jamarcus had no desire to lead
Danielle on at all so he turned his attention to Lucy.
“Great class,
Lucy. All that Latin music made me feel
like I was back in Miami again. Glad to
have you aboard! I need you to fill out
your timecard before you leave please.”
“No worries, I just
need to turn the fans off and hit the lights and I will be right down. Wait a minute…Miami? I thought you were from Jamaica.”
“Oh yeah well, I graduated
from University of Miami.”
“Go Hurricanes!”
“Yeah, something like
that. As for the real hurricanes…I’m
glad I don’t have to worry about that here.
What kind of natural disasters do you guys have to brace yourselves for
anyway?”
Jamarcus and Lucy
headed out of the room talking about what?
The weather. Lucy wasn’t a threat
…she was happily married so what was Danielle so worried about anyway? Danielle had territorial instincts she was
always fighting. She would somehow get
this new club owner to notice her. But
how? Danielle was kind of shocked that
Jamarcus wasn’t paying her any attention but then she snapped back to reality
as she saw Anton already walking out of the aerobics room. Apparently he had gotten tired of waiting for
Danielle. Yes, he had gotten tired of
his pretty, little, young thing.
Danielle bounced behind him like a puppy dog teasingly saying, “Wait up
sugar daddy!”
Anton rolled his eyes
but mustered a smile in Danielle’s direction.
“We still on for tonight?”
“Heck yeah we are…pick
me up at 6.”
“How about Chinese
tonight?”
“Ooh, yeah…that sounds
great.”
After freshening up in
the locker room, they walked through the club hand in hand. They passed Lucy and Lexie ordering Power
Smoothies at the snack bar. They waved a
quick goodbye as they headed out to the parking lot. Anton headed to his Silver Eddie Bauer
Limited Edition all leather interior Ford Explorer as Danielle headed over to
her little blue beat up Toyota Celica.
Was it a coincidence she always dated guys with nice cars? Probably not, she thought to herself.
Anton did pick up
Danielle and took her to Chang’s that night and he stayed true to his word as
far as “ripping it off like a bandaid”.
He hadn’t even waited for the main course to arrive so they were eating
wontons and eggrolls when he dropped the bomb.
Danielle was absolutely devastated by Anton breaking up with her. How dare he?
She was going to give him at least one more week before she dumped him. He beat her to the punch and even though she was
already detaching from him, somehow, the breakup hurt way more than she thought
it would. To her it was as if he was
saying, “You aren’t good enough.” His
reason for breaking up was that she was too young for him. She was too young for him? He was too old for her! Danielle felt insulted and wanted to run away
as fast as she could from the Chinese restaurant where she usually had broken
up with her dates. The irony smacked her
in the face.
Danielle
felt sick to her stomach and she quickly lost her appetite. Is this what all those guys she had dated and
dumped had felt too? Anton went on and
on about how they could just be friends.
Friends? Anton had put her in the
friend zone? You have got to be
kidding! “I’m the one who puts people in
the friend zone…not the other way around,” she thought to herself. Nobody will ever know about this,” she reassured
herself. Anton said he realized Danielle
was using him for his money so he offered to continue to finance her education
but not as a gift…as a loan that she could repay with interest. Danielle felt her chest start to close in
around her heart. She had never been
accused of being a gold digger but all the evidence with Anton was definitely
pointing that way. The longer he talked,
she felt as though she were being scolded by her dad. Danielle hated being reprimanded. She bowed her head and stared at her napkin
on her lap. She needed an excuse to
escape. As Anton continued his lecture
she stealthily texted her friend Brittney the code word, pinky toe. This meant within one minute she would get a
text from her friend in dire need of Danielle…something that couldn’t
wait. They had gotten the idea by
watching reruns of Seinfeld one night in the college dorm. So far, Danielle had been able to flee from
uncomfortable situations by this simple text message on several occasions. It always worked like a charm!
But it was too late,
Anton’s daughter Lia called and interrupted their breakup conversation. She had just been in a fender bender. She was fine and nobody was hurt too badly
but she needed her daddy. Danielle
figured her ego was probably more bruised than any bruise caused by the impact
of an airbag. Anton apologized for the
interruption, grabbed his leather jacket, handed Danielle two twenty dollar
bills, kissed her on the forehead and left.
The little bell jingled on the door of the Chinese restaurant as Anton
ran out into the night leaving Danielle sitting totally alone. Her cell phone chimed and signaled she had a
new text. “I am having a rough day and
need you to come over right away.” She
texted back, “Thnx, but no longer necessary.”
The waiter brought out the two plates and set them on the table. Danielle wished she could have crawled in a
hole and died. Never had she been so humiliated. There she sat, dressed for the town on a
Friday night, all alone in a Chinese restaurant. She stared at the uneaten Moo Goo Gai Pan
across the table and felt absolutely alone.
She felt as though other people in the restaurant were talking about her
behind her back. She didn’t dare make
eye contact with anyone but she snapped her fingers at the waiter and said, “I
guess I need this to go please.”
By the time the bell on
the door jingled behind her as she clutched her Chinese takeout box, the tears
were streaming down her face. Why
couldn’t she ever hang onto a man? Not
that she had wanted to hang on to Anton…but still the question haunted her. For the rest of the night, Danielle went to
her parent’s house, locked her bedroom door, and watched sappy chic flics while
eating her Chinese takeout and a whole half gallon of Moosetracks
icecream. For the first time, she had
been dumped and it hurt…it hurt excruciatingly bad! She found herself wondering what kind of
comfort guys tried to find when they had been dumped. She laughed as she tried to imagine a guy
eating icecream and watching chick flicks to try to get over her.
She had noticed that her exes always got really pumped after a
breakup. “They must hit the gym to cope
with the heartache,” she reasoned. That
would be a whole lot healthier than doing this.
She cried harder as she realized all the damage she had left in the wake
of Hurricane Danielle throughout the years.
She really was a beautiful monster!
She bawled her eyes out as she watched The
Princess Bride followed by While You Were Sleeping. Apparently, this particular tv station must
have known that the only people home on a Friday night were girls who needed a
good old fashioned romance. Both these
movies showed true love. Why was it she
could never find true love? She dated
all sorts of different men so it wasn’t like she was dating dirt bags all the
time. She remembered that she needed to
change her facebook status before word got out about the breakup. She needed everyone to think she had broken
up with Anton, not the other way around.
But she had waited too late, by the time she logged on to her facebook
ap on her phone, the news was all over.
Anton’s daughters had posted, “Ding dong the witch is dead…-feeling
relieved.” Danielle started crying all
over again and started drifting in and out of consciousness as she was
watching 80’s movie rewind night
starting with Pretty In Pink. “I bet
Anton saw this movie in the theatre when it first came out,” she thought to herself,
and then the tears started again. She was shocked at how much her heart was
hurting. This was not a feeling she was
used to. As she scrambled in her mind to
try to figure out a solution to her hurt she thought, “All I need is another
boyfriend…and soon.” Let’s see, who have
I not dated….Jamarcus! And if that
doesn’t work out there’s that guy Caleb who is always lifting weights when I
come out of Zumba. Yes, that’s it. I will get myself another man”.
Why Danielle felt she
always needed a guy to be happy is anyone’s guess. She grew up in a strong family with a father
who loved her dearly. Usually when women
are that obsessed with companionship, they have suffered some sort of neglect
or abuse from their father but that wasn’t the case with Danielle. Maybe she had watched too many romantic
comedies growing up or perhaps she had gotten lost in a fairytale world of
always wanting a prince charming to ride off into the sunset with. But whatever the reason, Danielle was cursed
to always be needing validation, acceptance, and praise from the opposite sex
in order to feel loved. Little did she
know that the hero she was looking for had always been staring back at her in
the mirror. What she really needed to do
was cultivate herself. Only then would
the right kind of man be attracted to her.
Usually when you stop searching for something, you find it. But as she drifted off to sleep awaiting
daylight, she was already plotting her man-chase once again.
Maroon 5. Daylight.
Rec. 27 Nov. 2012. A&M/Octone, 2012.
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